MEETING THE GENDER PARITY TARGET OF 2005: A FAR CRY FOR AFRICA

1 The Planning Process for EFA in Africa
As African leaders and heads of state plan to join hands in the forthcoming AU summit in Addis next month, three years after appending their signatures to the Dakar Framework for action (EFA Protocol, 2000), civil society’s perception on progress made on EFA by African countries has mixed. While it is true that there has been a growth in the number of countries with ‘credible’ plans, this is far below the numbers expected and it is unlikely that the new target date of December, 2004 for participatory plans will be achieved in many countries. While countries like Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Senegal and others have achieved their plans, there is some confusion about whether these are separate EFA plans, chapters of national development plans, sector review reports, MDG action plans or sections of their Poverty Reduction Strategy papers. A number of countries who claimed to have developed plans prior to the Dakar Forum have not reported any revision of their strategies in a participatory way – Nigeria, The Gambia, Zambia, Ghana, fall into these categories. Therefore, while the UNESCO progress report of 2001 suggested only 7 countries have this work to do in 2002/03, a deeper analysis of the state of ‘plans’ reveals the problem is significantly deeper than one would otherwise gather. Significant political commitment is required to put participatory and credible plans in place which will enable countries to strategically tackle the challenges which the Dakar Framework presents. Key among them is gender parity in education and promotion of girls education in Africa.

2 Making EFA goals and MDGs Indivisible
Barely six months after Dakar, the world’s leaders gathered at the Millennium Summit and committed themselves to eight over-arching goals - the Millennium Development Goals. Two of these correspond directly to Dakar goals. However, in the process of implementing Dakar, a new trend of emphasis on the MDGs has become the basis for action. Countries are focusing on access to primary schooling and girls' enrollment as the key indices of success. The international community, led by the World Bank, has aggressively adopted these two goals as the central basis for their support. The only two resource packages in sight since Dakar – The World Bank Fast Track initiative and the Commonwealth Education Fund – focus their emphasis on these two goals. However EFA goals and MDGs should not be treated separately. It is upon African governments to look at both EFA goals and MDGs broadly as indivisible frameworks whose attainment relies on each and similar strategies. This will help in building synergy, harmony and concerted efforts towards accelerating gender parity not as alone ranging goal but as part of the wider targets for education development in Africa.

3 Achieving basic education as a Constitutional right
All the documents, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and CEDAW, as well as Jomtien and Dakar Frameworks reaffirm the understanding that education is a basic human right. However, an analysis of most constitutions shows that this has not been translated effectively into national constitutions. With the exceptions of possibly Ghana, Kenya (Children's Act 2001 and the draft Constitution) and Malawi, there is no constitutional guarantee to the right of every individual citizen to education – even elementary or basic education. African leaders and governments should and must focus on this, as one of the priority areas. As long as basic education remain ‘a goodwill service’ devoid of constitutional provisions as a fundamental right girls access to education will continue to suffer a great deal. To unlock the potential of all boys and girls basic must be made not only accessible and compulsory but more importantly a constitutional entitlement. So all government policy documents should bestow elementary education as a fundamental right, allocate substantial funds to elementary education and reiterate commitment to close all gender and social equity gaps in accessing quality basic education for all citizens of the continent.

4 Financing of Education for Girls
Overall, financing to education continues to fall far short of the sums required to ensure access as set out in the Dakar Framework. Only very few countries like the Gambia and Senegal come close to the necessary budgetary allocations for achieving EFA – currently recommended at 26%. Most countries average between 5% and 10% with education often fairly low down on the list of national priorities – typically fifth or lower. Unless significant resources are mobilized into education, the MDG & EFA targets, particularly those on gender and girls education will remain a pipe dream. Governments must focus on national level resource mobilization to support EFA plans and initiate special funding mechanisms and sponsorship schemes to support girls education. This calls for affirmative action in allocation of resources to girls and boys from disadvantaged communities.

5 Participation of Girls in Education
Yes, more and more children are definitely coming to school and yes the teachers are also present, but one is left wondering how many girls in particular will actually complete the primary cycle with requisite skills. The tragedy is not that there is no demand for education or that people do not recognize the value of education in the overall growth and development of their children. Rather most of those children who do enroll are pushed from one grade to the next, thanks to the no-detention policy, that is if they are not pushed out of the system all together. School attendance varies across countries in the continent. Attendance rates too vary across different age groups - they decline as we move towards higher ages. This is more marked for girls in rural areas, where they decline by more than 50% for 10-17 year olds.

The situation is particularly bleak in rural areas, in urban slums and for children of communities who are at the bottom of the social ladder. The situation in these areas is fairly predictable - extreme poverty, low investment in primary education, low adult literacy, dysfunctional or poorly functioning schools, low learning achievements and high drop out rates. There are wide discrepancies between the percentage of boys and girls completing primary school. Moreover, for girls, socially disadvantaged groups, and those in rural areas, completion rates are lower. Equally disturbing is the distribution of out of school children by social group and by location, this is much more with rural girls belonging to disadvantaged groups. The real problem is that as we go down the social and economic pyramid, access and quality issues become far more pronounced. The vast numbers of the very poor in rural and urban Africa have to rely on government schools of different types. It is indeed the best time to make a decisive shift in the way education is envisioned - the demand side has never looked more promising. The overwhelming evidence emanating from studies done in the last 10 years clearly demonstrates that there is a tremendous demand for education - across the board and among all social groups. Wherever the government has ensured a well-functioning school within reach, enrolment has been high. The challenge for governments is to make public education relevant and of high quality so that parents and poor communities can reclaim their lost confidence in public and community education.

6 Quality, Diversity and Life Skills
Children who complete middle or even high school are left with almost no opportunity for continuing their education or acquiring employment or self-employment skills that could enable them to eke out a livelihood. Worse, there is no comprehensive policy to address the educational and training needs of educated youth. Basic, ordinary middle and high school education is not enough, particularly for girls. Given the changing scenario in the continent - especially with respect to the educational aspirations of our people - we have to seriously think about and plan for post-basic and or post-secondary education and training opportunities. Equally, linking education to empowerment (self-esteem/self-confidence), survival (for employment/self-employment), awareness of social, political and community issues and rights as citizens can yield handsome results for a continent that is experiencing unprecedented social as well as economic transformation.

Parents across Africa want to send their children - girls and boys - to school, but are at a loss in a situation where schools are dysfunctional. Also, teachers are not made accountable for learning outcomes of children, especially in the primary and middle-level schools where there are no agreed and child friendly evaluation benchmarks or systems.

7 Some conclusions and way forward
Access without quality is meaningless and quality is the essence of equity. There is little point in pushing children into schools if we cannot simultaneously gear the system to ensure children acquire reading, writing and cognitive skills appropriate for each level of education. This necessitates a multi-pronged strategy of bringing about changes in curriculum, classroom transactions, teacher training, classroom environment, teacher attitudes and school-community linkages. Working on any one of these without addressing related issues does not lead to significant improvement in the learning outcomes of children.

Creating multiple exit points, from post-primary onwards whereby children can access a wide range of technical/vocational skills (including agriculture, public/maternal health, nursing, social development, civic education and so on) is significant. Careful context specific planning has to be based on rigorous exploration of employment or self-employment opportunities and the resource base in the region. This is essential if we are to link education and training to life skills, governance, productive work and self consciousness.

While affirmative action for girls by way of reservations and special provisions does have a role to play, it is more than evident that in the last 20 years people from socially deprived communities (except for a tiny section) have remained at the bottom rung of the economic ladder. different educational institutions ensure that their literacy, numeracy, cognitive and critical thinking abilities remain poor. They enter adolescence and adulthood with little hope and are quickly sucked into a battle for survival that leaves little room for self-development. This reinforces prevalent ambivalence about appropriateness of formal education beyond the elementary level. Africa cannot hope to make a breakthrough unless the entire chain that binds education is addressed in totality. Piecemeal approaches have not worked in the past and are unlikely to do so in the future. This calls therefore for new approaches and comprehensive and broader sectoral reforms not only in education but in politics, economics and social development regimes.

Andiwo Obondoh works with ANCEFA - Africa Network Campaign on Education for All.

Note: the views expressed here are those of the author (collated from different papers) and not necessarily of ANCEFA since this paper has not been subjected to debate within the ANCEFA Network.